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Our Story
Part one
WASHINGTON
Cindy moved from Texas to Washington in her 30’s when her job with BP offered her the opportunity. She met her husband David shortly after landing, and it wasn’t long before she infected him with her love for wine.
Fast forward, and that passion led them to start making hobby wine in their garage in Covington, WA. As mutual enthusiasm for winemaking grew, they began taking classes to further their knowledge. In 2002 they decided to embark on turning their passion into reality, and Covington Cellars was born.
A few years later, they moved their production to Woodinville, WA where they were the 19th winery to open their doors.
In 2007 Morgan Lee joined David and Cindy as the first employee of Covington Cellars. Morgan has an affinity for Merlot and Syrah, and since Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese were the flagship varietals of Covington, the three decided to start a sister brand and named it Two Vintners. Morgan oversees all wine production for both brands to this day.
The Covington Crest
We originally drew the crest to go on the ODE label, our Brunello style wine. We figured since most family wineries in Italy had a family crest, we should too. We used it on the first bottling of ODE and liked it so much that we adopted it as our brand image. The crest was created to represent who we are. It consists of 6 identifiers:
The American Flag, because David is a Navy guy.
David is also a hunter, so we have his rifles.
Our fur babies are Vizslas.
We do a lot of cool stuff in our cellar like native fermentation, concrete and clay;
so the Amphora is a nod to our philosophy in the cellar.
We added the Texas star in 2019 when we started making Texas wine.
And I, am the queen.
Part Two
Texas
You can take the girl out of the place, but you can’t take the place out of the girl. After 16 years of living in Washington and watching the Texas Wine industry blossom, Cindy found her way back home in 2014.
The couple purchased 52 acres on the burgeoning Wine Trail of the Texas Hill Country in 2018 and began plans to construct a Texas location of Covington Cellars. The tasting room was completed in 2021 and plans for the vineyard began.
Part Three
New Vineyards
Cindy says it became apparent very quickly that this land was special. She thought, “we have elevation, slope, wind, and rocks – this could be the makings for something special. I hope to grow world class wine here, and the views aren’t bad either”.
They broke ground in the fall of 2022, and planted rootstock in the spring of 2023. The estate vineyard will grow Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, reaching producing maturity in 2028.
On to the future…
Growth & Expansion
With the eclectic mix of both Washington and Texas, David and Cindy are proud and excited for what’s next. Cindy learned to love Washington and the beautiful wines produced there, and David has fallen in love with Texas. “We love both WA and TX” Cindy says, “and we look forward to sharing with you the best of both places.”
We are excited to continue to enhance our Texas estate with more experiences and invite you to come visit anytime.
Meet the team
With locations in both Texas and Washington, our team creates wine that has an incredible ability to speak to a sense of place in both locations.
Cindy & David Lawson
Proprietors & FOUNDING WINEMAKERS
Cindy caught the wine bug at 19 years old, and by the time she turned 30 she knew she had to do something with wine in her life. She’d grown up in Houston and was working for BP when the company offered her a job in Washington state. The decision to leave Texas was difficult, but she knew there was a whole lot more wine-stuffs going on in WA back in the 90’s, so she sold her home in Katy, TX and off she went to Seattle.
She met her husband David, a Seattle native, almost immediately upon landing. David had never been a wine drinker, but Cindy’s passion was infectious and before she knew it, her beer drinking boyfriend had caught the wine bug too. And so began their mutual love affair with wine.
The couple started making hobby wine, took some enology classes, and in 2002 founded Covington Cellars. In 2014 Cindy felt a tug to get back to TX. The couple purchased a 52 acre property on the wine trail in Hye, TX and in 2021 Covington Cellars, Hill Country was born.
